International Geneva Award 2011
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The International Geneva Award has been established to encourage outstanding research sientists to produce publications that are particularly relevant for International Organisations. The Award is a prestigious academic distinction specifically created to promote links between Swiss academics and International Geneva. The Award is attributed to the three best papers published on a subject related to International Studies and especially useful from the perspective of the Academic Council of International Geneva. Each awarded paper is valued with CHF 5’000. The Winners of the 2011 Edition of the International Geneva Award
The award Jury, composed of members of the Academic Council of International Geneva, selected the following three articles that convinced by their originality, the strong methodoly and direct relevance for International Organizations. |
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Democracy promotion through functional cooperation? The case of the European Neighbourhood Policy Forthcoming in: Democratization, Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 1026 to 1054, August 2011 by Dr. Tina Freyburg, Centre for Comparative and International Studies, ETH Zurich
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The article highlights the conditions under which functional cooperation in specific policy areas can advance principles of democratic governance in non-democratic countries and thus contribute to the internationally recognised objective of democratisation. While focusing on the EU, the study is of broader relevance, in particular for International Organisations (IOs) that are specialized in certain policy fields.International democracy promotion has become a widely recognised objective and IOs have a role to play in its realisation. While the contribution to democracy promotion is evident for the activities of some organizations (e.g. in the UNDP’s electoral assistance programmes and UN Democracy Fund’s initiatives to strengthen parliaments), it is less obvious for sectorally specialized IOs. However, the article shows that internationally codified sector specific governance rules often contain elements of democratic governance, i.e. provisions on transparency, accountability, and public participation.
The article suggests that two factors which turned out to be conducive to the successful adoption of elements of democratic governance by a non-democratic country are particularly relevant for IOs: the strong codification of rules of democratic governance in international documents and a high institutionalization of cooperation between the IO and the partner state.
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International law and armed non-state actors in Afghanistan Published in: International Review of the Red Cross, Volume 93, Number 881, March 2011 by Dr. Annyssa Bellal, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
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This paper addresses the international legal implications of the armed conflict taking place in Afghanistan focusing on armed non-state actors. The article examines the applicability of international humanitarian law and human rights law to armed non-state actors and addresses important controversies on that topic. In clarifying some of those issues from a legal point of view the article contains conclusions relevant for military and political decisions makers. It also provides a list of policy recommendations to those international organisations involved in the field on how to enhance respect for international law by armed non-state actors. For this section, the authors built up on one of their key research projects led at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
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Pathology of Path-Dependency? The ILO and the Challenge of “New Governance” forthcoming in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review by Prof. Lucio Baccaro, Sociology Department, University of Geneva
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The “challenge of new governance” – which is examined in this paper through an in-depth case study of the International Labour Organization (ILO) – is a common feature of most International Organizations (IOs) seeking to adapt to global socio-economic changes. “New governance” as defined in this paper includes a shift from standards expressed as detailed legal norms to “soft law”, the active involvement of civil society organizations and NGOs in the decision-making process as well as the introduction of quantitative indicators tracking the level of compliance with the standards set by the IO.While most literature considers the transition to a new governance mode a smooth evolutionary process made functionally inevitable by shifts in the external environment, the authors show in this paper that nothing is automatic in this process. The transition can be highly demanding, both from a political and an organizational point of view.
The in-depth investigation of the ILO case contributes to the analytical toolkit of policy-makers and managers of IOs by emphasizing the role of leadership and the internal governance structure in promoting the change process; identifying which mechanisms of resistance can stall or delay the change process; discussing the crucial role of members states and other stakeholders in supporting the change process initiated by the organizational leadership. |
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